Category: Uncategorized

By Justin K. Powley and David G. Barker The Second Circuit held yesterday in Fox News Network, LLC v. TVEyes, Inc., that a media service offering a search engine of video clips from news networks violates copyright law. On appeal, the Second Circuit held that such use is not protected by the fair use doctrine. TVEyes records content, including closed-captioning text, of television and radio channels in real time, and indexes and stores the content in a text-searchable database. Clients search the database using words or phrases to retrieve a list of relevant video clips. Each video clip can be Read More»

By Peter R. Montecuollo and David G. Barker The Federal Circuit issued guidance yesterday for district courts deciding venue challenges after the Supreme Court’s May 2017 decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC. In In re Micron Technology, Inc., the Federal Circuit granted Micron Technology, Inc.’s petition for a writ of mandamus, holding that TC Heartland “changed the controlling law” by making available a venue defense that was not “available” to patent infringement defendants prior to the Supreme Court’s decision. In the wake of TC Heartland, Micron Technology moved to dismiss or transfer President and Fellows Read More»

The House of Representatives passed the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) on April 27, 2016 with a vote of 410-2. Strong, unified support for the DTSA by the House of Representatives closely followed its unanimous passage by the Senate in early April 2016. The DTSA now will be presented to President Obama for his signature.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act continues to move through Congress. Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee approved the bill without any amendments, sending the DTSA to the House floor for a vote. If the DTSA passes the House, President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill into law. We will continue to monitor the DTSA’s progress.

The federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) received strong support from both the White House and the Senate on April 4, 2016. The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy stressing the importance of trade secret protection to promote innovation and minimize “threats to American businesses, the U.S. economy, and national security interests.” Additionally, the Senate passed the DTSA with a unanimous vote. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, one of the authors of the DTSA, emphasized that trade secrets are an “essential form of intellectual property” and trade secret theft stifles innovation. Therefore, “U.S. companies must be able to Read More»